Scientists Have Detected an Enormous Cavity Growing Beneath Antarctica
15 replies, posted
https://www.sciencealert.com/giant-void-identified-under-antarctica-reveals-a-monumental-hidden-ice-retreat
Now, a stunning new void has been revealed amidst this massive vanishing act, and it's a big one: a gigantic cavity growing under West Antarctica that scientists say covers two-thirds the footprint of Manhattan and stands almost 300 metres (984 ft) tall.
This huge opening at the bottom of the Thwaites Glacier – a mass infamously dubbed the "most dangerous glacier in the world" – is so big it represents an overt chunk of the estimated 252 billion tonnes of ice Antarctica loses every year.
Researchers say the cavity would once have been large enough to hold some 14 billion tonnes of ice. Even more disturbing, the researchers say it lost most of this ice volume over the last three years alone.
If it were to disappear entirely, the ice held in the glacier could lift the ocean by an estimated 65 centimetres (about 2 ft). But that's not even the worst-case scenario.
The Thwaites Glacier actually holds in neighbouring glaciers and ice masses further inland. If its buttressing force disappeared, the consequences could be unthinkable, which is why it's considered such a pivotal natural structure in the Antarctic landscape.
As New York University geoscientist David Holland, who wasn't involved in the current study, told The Washington Post last year: "For global sea-level change in the next century, this Thwaites glacier is almost the entire story."
Location of Thwaites Glacier
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/684B/production/_101099662_thwaites_glacier_map_640v1-nc.png
The red spot growing in the middle of this gif is the cavity. Note the timestamps of the image at the top to get an idea of timescale.
https://www.sciencealert.com/images/2019-01/031-thwaites-glacier-cavity-antarctica.gif
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/1/eaau3433
I cant wait for my coworker to take this story and spin it to fit his conspiracy that there's a whole world under ours.
Is it possible something like this could cause a megatsunami?
The actual worst-case scenario is that the Shoggoths might be coming.
Actually nah, I'll take the Shoggoths any day rather than have whatever's coming to us.
Only if there's a sudden force that presents itself, if it's gradual it's not gonna do shit really.
Probably forgot to floss, smh
Tell him the other world is causing global warming on our world.
We need to take them out before they drown us! Nuke Antarctica! Show those ice gremlins the unfathomable awe of humanity's hellfire!
This some SCP shit right here. Somebody check out this keter motherfucker.
